Facebook: Frances Haugen, a whistleblower with a very structured approach

 The specialist in "algorithmic rankings" left the social network by carrying thousands of documents from internal forums and has been organizing, since her revelations, a precise media and political release.

“I had the impression that, faced with conflicts of interest, between its profits and the protection of users, Facebook repeatedly chose its profits. " Frances Haugen explained well why she became " the Facebook whistleblower " to the US Senate committee that the auditioning this Tuesday, October 5 . In May, the 37-year-old employee decided to quit the social network by taking thousands of documents from internal forums.

M me Haugen is a specialist in "algorithmic rankings" that are used to prioritize content on the platforms. After a management degree from Harvard University and computer studies, she was hired by Google and then went through the social networks Pinterest and Yelp, before joining Facebook, in 2019. Motivated by the " loss of a friend who fell into disinformation ”, she joined the“ civic integrity ”team, responsible for combating“ fake news ” and hate speech, particularly in elections. M meHaugen says she was then gradually discouraged, due to too limited budgets or her inability to reduce problems in developing countries. Its “drop of water” will have been the dismantling, at the end of 2020, of the “civic integrity” team by Facebook, which says it has distributed its tasks to other services.

Eight complaints filed

Frances Haugen is not the first Facebook employee to resign, nor the first ethics specialist to criticize the business of a digital giant. What sets her apart is the very structured aspect of her approach. She set up a precise media and political sequence: investigations in the Wall Street Journal, interview with the magazine "60 Minutes", broadcast on the American television channel CBS News, where she reveals herself, hearing before the commission to which she has transmitted its documents ...

It is also very supported by Whistleblower Aid, an NGO specializing in helping whistleblowers, founded by lawyer John Tye, who himself denounced the actions of the US National Security Agency. This association is based on the protected status of whistleblower, created by the Dodd-Frank law of 2010, with a specific office at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It is also with this policeman of the financial markets that she filed eight complaints ensuring that Facebook lied to investors. And Whistleblower Aid also incorporates into its strategy the "compensations" that the SEC can grant to whistleblowers for their information, which sometimes runs into millions of dollars.